Scientists and others are often interested in determining features of a sample of material that are inaccessible by merely examining the surface of the sample. For example, a sample may contain: fossils, mineral deposits, fracturing, vesicles and/or other microscopic and macroscopic features that a scientist may be interested in observing in greater detail. For example, a scientist may be interested, in the three-dimensional structure or a three-dimensional spatial distribution of features of the sample. There are generally non-destructive and destructive techniques for examining otherwise inaccessible features of a sample. For example, non-destructive techniques can include X-ray imaging such as X-ray computed tomography (CT) and X-ray microscopy techniques that can be used to determine some interior features of samples. However, these techniques are generally limited in their ability to differentiate between objects of similar density and/or similar mineralogy, among other shortcomings.
Destructive techniques, on the other hand, are often time consuming and imprecise when performed manually, or limited to examining only a limited field of view of microstructure in a sample when performed automatically.
Accordingly, new apparatuses and methods for serial sectioning are desirable.